Boca Condo Owners Are Out Of Town

September 7, 2003|George L. Salguero Boca Raton

Re Howard Goodman's Aug. 31 column, "A startling sign of City Council responsiveness": No, things haven't changed in Boca. We have yet to hear from the condominium owners who requested [beach restoration that would change Red Reef Park] to begin with. Condominium owners have said in the past that their buildings' foundations could be in danger during a major storm or hurricane. I'm sure that an explanation for their silence is the fact that most of these condo residents are living up North until October. Without their opposition, this would be a great time for the city to create a perception of representing their constituents.

A new reef built south of the Boca Raton Inlet would be quite a new home for our local sea creatures and would provide valuable storm surge protection and future sand generation. The area would be also a lot harder to get to, keeping humans from destroying the sensitive ecological home to fish and coral life. This project is about reef building and beach restoration, not about developing or supporting a public aquarium in our shoreline. I think the tradeoffs are significant: Beach erosion protection and a new reef in return for moving a piece of limestone.

No, things haven't changed in Boca. City officials are still not doing what's in the long-term best interest of the public and the environment. After all, in October 2000, the state's Department of Environmental Protection determined the beaches in our area were "critically eroded." A new, larger reef would also put Boca on the map for great diving and fishing. Deciding not to bury a small insignificant reef in return for not protecting our shoreline is just another bad decision by this group of politically motivated public officials.